Nana-Ama Danquah will read from and discuss her groundbreaking memoir, WILLOW WEEP FOR ME: A BLACK WOMAN'S JOURNEY THROUGH DEPRESSION.ABOUT THE BOOKThe first book to focus on black women and depression, seen through the personal journey of a young black woman’s descent into despair.Nana-Ama Danquah, a “working-class broke,” twenty-two-year-old single mother, began to suffer from a variety of depressive symptoms after she gave birth to her daughter, which led her to suspect that she might be going crazy. Understanding the importance of strength in a world that often undervalues black women’s lives, she shrouded herself and her illness in silence and denial. “Black women are supposed to be strong―caretakers, nurturers, healers of other people―any of the twelve dozen variations of Mammy,” writes Danquah. But eventually, she could no longer deny the debilitating sadness that interfered with her ability to care for her daughter, to pursue her career as a writer, and to engage in personal relationships. “This is how the world feels to me when I am depressed,” she writes. “Everything is blurry, out of focus, fading like a photograph; people seem incapable of change; living feels like a waste of time and effort.”She moves back to the city of Read More ...

Cliff Sloan discusses THE COURT AT WAR with Rich Marmaro.ABOUT THE BOOKThe inside story of how one president forever altered the most powerful legal institution in the country, with consequences that endure today.By the summer of 1941, in the ninth year of his presidency, Franklin Roosevelt had molded his Court. He had appointed seven of the nine justices—the most by any president except George Washington—and handpicked the chief justice.But the wartime Roosevelt Court had two faces. One was bold and progressive, the other supine and abject, cowed by the charisma of the revered president. The Court at War explores this pivotal period. It provides a cast of unforgettable characters in the justices—from the mercurial, Vienna-born intellectual Felix Frankfurter to the Alabama populist Hugo Black; from the western prodigy William O. Douglas, FDR’s initial pick to be his running mate in 1944, to Roosevelt’s former attorney general and Nuremberg prosecutor Robert Jackson.The justices’ shameless capitulation and unwillingness to cross their beloved president highlight the dangers of an unseemly closeness between Supreme Court justices and their political patrons. But the FDR Court’s finest moments also provided a robust defense of individual rights, rights the current Court has put in jeopardy. Sloan’s intimate Read More ...

Melissa Broder will be reading her latest, DEATH VALLEYABOUT THE BOOKThe most profound book yet from the visionary author of Milk Fed and The Pisces, a darkly funny novel about grief that becomes a desert survival story.In Melissa Broder’s astounding new novel, a woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow—for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist who recommends a nearby hike.Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it. What awaits her inside this mystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious and poignant.This is Melissa Broder at her most imaginative, most universal, and finest. This is Death Valley.ABOUT THE AUTHOR Melissa Broder is the author of the novels Milk Fed and The Pisces, the essay collection Read More ...

Decorated sportswriter Alex Squadron discusses his new book LIFE IN THE G with Mirin FaderABOUT THE BOOKWelcome to the G League—the official minor league of the National Basketball Association. Life in the G is about the arduous quest to achieve an improbable goal: making it to the NBA. Zeroing in on the Birmingham Squadron and four of its players—Jared Harper, Joe Young, Zylan Cheatham, and Malcolm Hill—Alex Squadron details the pursuit of a dream in what turned out to be the most remarkable season in the history of minor league sports. Life in the G League is far from glamorous. Players make enormous sacrifices and work unimaginable hours in the hope that someone in the NBA will give them a chance. To this day, very few fans—even the most passionate followers of the NBA—know much about the G League. In the fall of 2021, the Birmingham Squadron granted author Alex Squadron complete access to the team to capture the experience of playing in the league. That year, with hundreds of NBA players sidelined by the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19, the G League saw a record number of call-ups. Sports Illustrated labeled it “the year of the NBA replacement Read More ...

Minnesota Attorney General will be discussing his recent book BREAK THE WHEEL.ABOUT THE BOOKWith this powerful and intimate trial diary, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison asks the key question: How do we break the wheel of police violence and finally make it stop?The murder of George Floyd sparked global outrage. At the center of the conflict and the controversy, Keith Ellison grappled with the means of bringing justice for Floyd and his family. Now, in this riveting account of the Derek Chauvin trial, Ellison takes the reader down the path his prosecutors took, offering different breakthroughs and revelations for a defining, generational moment of racial reckoning and social justice understanding.Each chapter of BREAK THE WHEEL goes spoke to spoke along the wheel of the system as Ellison examines the roles of prosecutors, defendants, heads of police unions, judges, activists, legislators, politicians, and media figures, each in his attempt to end this chain of violence and replace it with empathy and shared insight.Ellison’s analysis of George Floyd’s life and the rich trial context he provides demonstrates that, while it may seem like an unattainable goal, lasting change and justice can be achieved.ABOUT THE AUTHOR Keith Ellison was sworn in as Minnesota’s Read More ...

Paul Yoon reads from and discusses his new book THE HIVE AND THE HONEY at Chevalier's Books.ABOUT THE BOOKFrom the beloved award-winning author Paul Yoon comes a spectacular collection of unique stories, each confronting themes of identity, belonging, and the collision of cultures across countries and centuries.A boy searches for his father, a prison guard on Sakhalin Island. In Barcelona, a woman is tasked with spying on a prizefighter who may or may not be her estranged son. A samurai escorts an orphan to his countrymen in the Edo Period. A formerly incarcerated man starts a new life in a small town in upstate New York and attempts to build a family.The Hive and the Honey is a bold and indelible collection by celebrated author Paul Yoon, one that portrays the vastness and complexity of diasporic communities, with each story bringing to light the knotty inheritances of their characters. How does a North Korean defector connect with the child she once left behind? What are the traumas that haunt a Korean settlement in Far East Russia?Lauded as a “quotidian-surreal craft-master” (New York magazine), Yoon’s stunning stories are laced with beauty and cruelty, and The Hive and the Honey is the Read More ...

Jonny Sun and Deb JJ Lee read from their work GOODBYE, AGAIN & IN LIMBO to us and we love it for an entire evening!ABOUT THE BOOKSGOODBYE, AGAIN is a collection of touching and hilarious personal essays, stories, poems—accompanied by his trademark illustrations—covering topics such as mental health, happiness, and what it means to belong.IN LIMBO is a debut YA graphic memoir about a Korean-American girl's coming-of-age story—and a coming home story—set between a New Jersey suburb and Seoul, South Korea. ABOUT THE AUTHORSJonny Sun is the New York Times and international best-selling author of Goodbye, again and everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too, and the illustrator of Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin-Manuel Miranda.Deb JJ Lee is a Korean American artist currently living in Brooklyn, NY. They have appeared in the New Yorker, Washington Post, NPR, Google, Radiolab, PBS, and more. Books they have illustrated include The Invisible Boy by Alyssa Hollingsworth (Roaring Brook Press, 2020) and The Other Side of Tomorrow by Tina Cho (HarperCollins, 2024). They enjoy reality tv, sparkling water, and pretending to be an extrovert.

Richard Sandler reads from and discusses his new book WITNESS TO A PROSECUTION: THE MYTH OF MICHAEL MILKEN at Chevalier's Books.ABOUT THE BOOKIn 1986, the SEC and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York began an investigation into Michael Milken, Drexel Burnham Lambert, and its High Yield and Convertible Bond Department, a department Michael created and was head of. Michael was the most successful and innovative financier of his time. Drexel, an upstart investment bank was also the most successful securities firm on Wall Street, thanks to Michael.What was the investigation into Michael Milken going to focus on, other than his innovation in the financial markets? Mike was democratizing access to capital for the 99% of companies that could not previously access the public market and created a financial revolution that continues to this day. The high yield bond market grew rapidly from the end of the 1970's from $70 billion to over $2.2 trillion dollars in 2022. He created an industry that gave new businesses and investors the opportunity to create value by financing companies that were too small to access the markets.Richard Sandler decided to represent Michael as his personal lawyer, and to be responsible Read More ...

Michael Connelly reads from and discusses his new novel RESURRECTION WALK with NBC's Josh MankiewiczTicket price covers the cost of one copy of RESURRECTION WALK that you'll receive the night of the event at the Ebell (plus event fees & tax). Additional copies of Connelly's books will be available for purchase on-site. Location and Parking details:The event will take place in the Ebell Lounge. Parking is limited so please ensure you have enough time to get oriented. ABOUT THE BOOKFrom #1 New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly: Lincoln Lawyer Mickey Haller enlists the help of his half-brother, Harry Bosch, to prove the innocence of a woman convicted of killing her husband.Defense attorney Mickey Haller is back, taking the long shot cases, where the chances of winning are one in a million. After getting a wrongfully convicted man out of prison, he is inundated with pleas from incarcerated people claiming innocence. He enlists his half brother, retired LAPD Detective Harry Bosch, to weed through the letters, knowing most claims will be false.Bosch pulls a needle from the haystack: a woman in prison for killing her husband, a sheriff’s deputy, but who still maintains her innocence. Bosch reviews the case and Read More ...

Raj Tawney reads his latest, COLORFUL PALATE, in conversation with Claudia ForestieriABOUT THE BOOKA timely self-examination of the "mixed" American experience featuring exclusive recipes and photographs from the author's multicultural family.As citizens continue to evolve and diversify within the United States, the ingredients that make up each flavorful household are waiting to be discovered and devoured. In Colorful Palate, author Raj Tawney shares his coming-of-age memoir as a young man born into an Indian, Puerto Rican, and Italian-American family, his struggles with understanding his own identity, and the mouthwatering flavors of the melting pot from within his own childhood kitchen.While the world outside can be cruel and unforgiving, it's even more complicated for a mixed-race kid, unsure of his place in the world. Turning to his mother and grandmother for guidance, Tawney assists in the kitchen, providing intimate moments and candor as he listened to the tales behind each culinary delicacy and the women who perfected it. Each lovingly prepared meal offered another opportunity to learn more about his extraordinary heritage. The ability to create delicious fare with his family wasn't just a duty for the grand ladies who raised him; it was a survival tactic for navigating new and Read More ...

Join us at Chevalier's Books to celebrate Pratik: A Magazine of Contemporary Writing's Darkness in Style, Noir Issue featuring 8 writers!ABOUT THE BOOKEdited by the world renowned Himalayan poet, Yuyutsu RD Sharma, Pratik is a purely non-profit literary publication and is published by White Lotus Book Shop, Kathmandu for Mrs. Prabha Adhikary. The magazine was founded by Nepalese poet, Hari Adhikary who along with several distinguished Nepali poets including Mohan Koirala published it initially in Nepali language. The magazine was later revamped and published in English language by Yuyutsu Sharma in 1989. Since then, Pratik has become a significant platform of creative writing worldwide.ABOUT THE WRITERSSuzanne Lummis guest-edited the noir-themed, “Darkness in Style,” issue for the international literary journal, Pratik. Poetry.la produces her long-running YouTube series that connects contemporary poetry and film noir, They Write by Night. NPR's "All Things Considered” profiled her in an episode called "Noir Poetry with L.A. as a Backdrop." She’s published three full-length collections and her poetry has appeared in noted literary journals. She’s a longtime teacher with the UCLA Extension Writers Program and leads a series of Zoom explorations involving workshops together with close readings of important poetry, Deep Poetry Knowledge.Yuyutsu Sharma is the Read More ...

Ben Weber discusses his new book AMERICAN PURGATORY with LA icon Luis J. RodriguezABOUT THE BOOKIn this explosive new book, historian Benjamin Weber reveals how the story of American prisons is inextricably linked to the expansion of American power around the globe. A vivid work of hidden history that spans the wars to subjugate Native Americans in the mid-nineteenth century, the conquest of the western territories, and the creation of an American empire in Panama, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines, American Purgatory reveals how “prison imperialism”—the deliberate use of prisons to control restive, subject populations—is written into our national DNA, extending through to our modern era of mass incarceration. Weber also uncovers a surprisingly rich history of prison resistance, from the Seminole Chief Osceola to Assata Shakur—one that invites us to rethink the scope of America’s long freedom struggle. Weber’s brilliantly documented text is supplemented by original maps highlighting the global geography of prison imperialism, as well as illustrations of key figures in this history by the celebrated artist Ayo Scott. For readers of Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow, here is a bold new effort to tell the full story of prisons and incarceration—at home and abroad—as well as Read More ...

Join Ben Breen as he discusses his wild new book on the birth of psychedelic science. ABOUT THE BOOK A bold and brilliant revisionist take on the history of psychedelics in the twentieth century, illuminating how a culture of experimental drugs shaped the Cold War and the birth of Silicon Valley. Far from the repressed traditionalists they are often painted as, the generation that survived the second World War emerged with a profoundly ambitious sense of social experimentation. In the '40s and '50s, transformative drugs rapidly entered mainstream culture, where they were not only legal, but openly celebrated. American physician John C. Lilly infamously dosed dolphins (and himself) with LSD in a NASA-funded effort to teach dolphins to talk. A tripping Cary Grant mumbled into a Dictaphone about Hegel as astronaut John Glenn returned to Earth. At the center of this revolution were the pioneering anthropologists—and star-crossed lovers—Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson. Convinced the world was headed toward certain disaster, Mead and Bateson made it their life’s mission to reshape humanity through a new science of consciousness expansion, but soon found themselves at odds with the government bodies who funded their work, whose intentions were less than pure. Mead and Read More ...

How Amy Chua went from a shy Asian kid to a Yale Law professor and author of conversation-starting books! ABOUT THE EVENT Amy Chua will discuss her journey from the daughter of immigrants to Yale Law professor and author of conversation-starting books—and now novelist. Amy Chua’s most recent book is “The Golden Gate”, a historical novel. Perhaps her most famous (or infamous) book is “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” ABOUT THE AUTHOR Amy Chua is the John M. Duff, Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College and cum laude from Harvard Law School, where she was Executive Editor of the Harvard Law Review. After practicing on Wall Street for a few years, she joined the Yale Law School faculty in 2001 and is a noted expert in the areas of foreign policy, globalization, and ethnic conflict. Amy is the bestselling author of numerous books, including World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability (2002), which was selected by both The Economist and the U.K.’s Guardian as a Best Book of 2003; Day of Empire: How Hyperpowers Rise to Global Dominance – and Why They Read More ...

A night of poetry featuring 5 incredible poets, moderated by Elizabeth Metzger & Liz (L. A.) Johnson! ABOUT THE EVENT Los Angeles poets L.A. Johnson and Elizabeth Metzger will co-host a reading and Q & A with five extraordinary poets as part of a curated reading series with local and non-local poets. L. A. Johnson is a writer from California. She is currently a Mellon Humanities postdoctoral fellow at the University of Southern California. The winner of the 2021 Rumi Prize in Poetry from Arts & Letters, her poems appear in Best New Poets, Poetry Magazine, The Slowdown Podcast, and elsewhere. Elizabeth Metzger is the author of Lying In (Milkweed, 2023), as well as and The Spirit Papers, winner of the Juniper Prize for Poetry, and the chapbook Bed, recipient of The Sunken Garden Chapbook Prize. She is a poetry editor at the Los Angeles Review of Books and she lives in California. ABOUT THE POETS Natalie Shapero is a writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The London Review of Books, The New York Review of Books, The Paris Review, The Nation, and elsewhere. She is the author of the poetry collections Read More ...

Join Mark Daley as he discusses his new memoir. ABOUT THE BOOK A heartrending and unforgettable memoir of an unlikely journey to parenthood through America's broken foster care system. What does it take to keep a child safe? As a long-time strategist and activist fighting for better outcomes for foster children, Mark Daley thought he had the answer. But when Ethan and Logan, an adorable infant and a precocious toddler, entered into their lives, Mark and his husband Jason quickly realized they were not remotely prepared for the uncertainty and complication of foster parenting. Every day seven hundred children enter the foster care system in the United States, and thousands more live on the brink. Safe offers a deeply personal window into what happens when the universal longing for family crashes up against the unique madness and bureaucracy of a child protection system that often fails to consider the needs of the most vulnerable parties of all--the children themselves. Daley takes us on a roller coaster ride as he and Jason grapple with Ethan and Logan's potential reunification with their biological family, learn brutal lessons about sacrifice, acceptance, and healing, and face the honest, heartbreaking, and sometimes hilarious challenges of Read More ...

Join wellness expert Ros Ben-Moshe as she discusses her new transformative body-mind guide in conversation with Dani Klein Modisett.About the BookLaughter really can be the best medicine, and in this transformative body-mind guide, acclaimed wellness expert Ros Ben-Moshe shares the prescription.In The Laughter Effect, Ros Ben-Moshe provides a roadmap to tap into the lighter side of life with laughter therapy. Ben-Moshe shares tips and tools to achieve an intentional state of being she calls the Laughter Effect-a way to elevate mindfulness, gratitude, and self-compassion. When used regularly, it enhances resilience to stress, enabling you to respond to adversity and bounce forward with humor, levity, and grace.Drawing on research from around the world, practice and wisdom from humor and laughter therapy, and positive psychology and neuroscience, Ben-Moshe shows you how to use the energy of laughter and joy to counter stress hormones and stimulate a daily dose of positive wellbeing with "happy hormones."The techniques, strategies and practices you'll learn can transform your physical, mental, social and emotional landscape. Viewing life through a laughter lens will awaken a positive change in yourself, how you respond to the world and, in turn, how the world responds to you.ABOUT THE AUTHORRos Ben-Moshe is a Read More ...

Join author Sheila Yasmin Marikar as she discusses her new novel in conversation with Tinx.About the BookSix old friends descend on Napa Valley for a luxurious weekend of fine wine and good times…until old tensions simmer to the surface. So much can go wrong in this dark comedy by the author of The Goddess Effect.Just get yourselves here, everything else is on us.Raj and Rachel Ranjani have invited a small group of their ride or dies from college for a celebratory weekend in Napa Valley. On the agenda: three nights in the couple’s vineyard mansion, a lavish dinner at Napa’s hottest new restaurant, exclusive tastings, and the grand opening of the Ranjanis’ ultra-high-end winery. It’s a reunion of six friends who haven’t seen each other in years. What could go wrong?To start, there’s the less-than-warm welcome: a brick flung through a window and palpable tension between the hosts. But no worries―all Raj has to do is pop a few bottles of vintage Dom, and the college vibes come rushing back. So do old resentments, animosities, and unrequited crushes. Soon enough, the illusion of friendship shatters like a gossamer wineglass, and one of the friends ends up dead. Everyone has their Read More ...

Join Katharine Haake as she discusses her latest book in conversation with author Lou MathewsABOUT THE BOOKIn Katharine Haake's new eco-fable, What Happened Was, emissaries from the postworld return to us with accounts of a future that spooled itself out because we weren’t paying attention. In it, everything looks a lot like now, only a little bit different. Intimate, precarious, often beguiling, sometimes hilarious, and never free of political context, these reports are haunted by loss. Whether parts of the body or children in trees, things disappear in this world without warning or sense as everything fades toward oblivion and dead parents taunt from the grave: What made you think you were so special it wouldn’t happen to you?ABOUT THE AUTHORKatharine Haake is the author of the eco-dystopian science fiction fable, The Time of Quarantine, and the California hybrid prose lyric, That Water, Those Rocks, and three collections of stories. Her work has appeared broadly and been recognized as distinguished by Best American Fiction and Best American Essays, among others. She is a professor of creative writing at California State University, Northridge.ABOUT THE INTERLOCUTORLou Mathews is the author of the novels L.A. Breakdown, an L.A. Times Best Book, and Shaky Read More ...

Sociologist Neil Gong explains why mental health treatment in Los Angeles rarely succeeds, for the rich, the poor, and everyone in between.ABOUT THE BOOKIn 2022, Los Angeles became the US county with the largest population of unhoused people, drawing a stark contrast with the wealth on display in its opulent neighborhoods. In Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics, sociologist Neil Gong traces the divide between the haves and have-nots in the psychiatric treatment systems that shape the life trajectories of people living with serious mental illness. In the decades since the United States closed its mental hospitals in favor of non-institutional treatment, two drastically different forms of community psychiatric services have developed: public safety-net clinics focused on keeping patients housed and out of jail, and elite private care trying to push clients toward respectable futures.In Downtown Los Angeles, many people in psychiatric crisis only receive help after experiencing homelessness or arrests. Public providers engage in guerrilla social work to secure them housing and safety, but these programs are rarely able to deliver true rehabilitation for psychological distress and addiction. Patients are free to refuse treatment or use illegal drugs--so long as they do so away from public view.Across town in West Read More ...

Join us as we celebrate Leslie's new timely, clever, and white-knuckled thriller along with author Joy Sullivan.ABOUT THE BOOK:Wellness, motherhood, and technology converge in a near future California, as three women’s seemingly innocuous decisions have further-reaching consequences than any of them could imagine in this timely, clever, and white-knuckled thriller.In 2060, the WellPod is the latest launch from the largest tech company the world has ever seen—a fleet of floating personal paradises scattered throughout the Pacific Ocean, focused entirely on health, solitude, and relaxation. Created by an enigmatic founder who will stop at nothing to ensure her company’s success, it is the long-awaited pinnacle of wellness technology. For newly pregnant Maggie, the six-week program is the perfect chance to get away…especially since the baby isn’t her partner’s.Noa Behar isn’t a perfect fiancée. She’s too distracted, too focused on her work in helping program the WellPod to give Maggie the attention she deserves. But when she discovers something rotten beneath WellPod’s shiny exterior—a history of faulty tech and dangerous cover-ups—she knows one thing: she’ll do whatever it takes to keep Maggie safe.The problem? The malfunctioning WellPods are already at sea. And there’s a storm coming...ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Leslie Stephens is the creator Read More ...

Join us for the launch of bestselling author Lucinda Berry's new gripping thriller, If You Tell a Lie.ABOUT THE BOOKBestselling author Lucinda Berry serves up a haunting thriller about four friends sworn to secrecy over the events of one fateful summer―and the dark truths that threaten to erupt years later.They never considered how his wife might react, or that by the end of the summer a man would be dead. But Blakely always got her way, and the others followed her lead―even when they knew it was dead wrong.The girls had been friends from day one at Camp Pendleton, a haven for gifted children. But their senior summer was different. When Mr. Crosby, the handsome tennis coach, wound up murdered after a reckless lie, Blakely, Grace, Meg, and Thera swore themselves to secrecy. And never spoke to each other again.Until now. Twenty years later a sinister note claiming to know what they did brings them back together. And once again Blakely is pulling the strings.Unfolding in a dual timeline, If You Tell a Lie is a disturbing journey into the dangerous, sometimes deadly consequences of peer pressure―with a bone-chilling twist you’ll never see coming.ABOUT THE AUTHORDr. Lucinda Berry is a Read More ...

Chevalier's community reads program One Book One Block presents Danzy Senna at the Ebell of Los Angeles.One Book, One Block is a quarterly community reads program that encourages conversation and connection through shared reading experiences on Larchmont Blvd!Join Chevalier's Books for our first One Book, One Block Community Reads program! Read Colored Television by Danzy Senna in the month of October, then join the author for a discussion of the book on October 28 at 7 pm at the Ebell of Los Angeles.Admission is free with the purchase of Colored Television from Chevalier's Books, or via the ticket below (your book can then be picked up in store or at the event). Aditional admissions are $10.ABOUT THE BOOKA brilliant take on love and ambition, failure and reinvention, and the racial-identity-industrial complex from the bestselling author of CaucasiaJane has high hopes that her life is about to turn around. After a long, precarious stretch bouncing among sketchy rentals and sublets, she and her family are living in luxury for a year, house-sitting in the hills above Los Angeles. The gig magically coincides with Jane’s sabbatical, giving her the time and space she needs to finish her second novel—a centuries-spanning epic her Read More ...